Various vehicle parking assisting systems are proposed. For instance, JP 2002-59798A proposes a display of a positional relation between a vehicle and an obstacle, and JP 2000-142284A proposes a display of a distance between a vehicle and an obstacle. In addition, JP 2003-030627A and 2003-143597A propose a display of a birds-eye view image formed by combining past and present birds-eye view images.
In other conventional vehicle parking assisting systems, as shown in FIGS. 14A to 14C, a subject vehicle SV has a sonar device including an ultrasonic sensor to detect an obstacle OB such as another vehicle or a building within a detection area DA of the sonar device, when moving in its rearward direction. In these figures, DP1 and DP2 denote a present detection point and a past detection point of the obstacle OB, respectively. These situations in FIGS. 14A to 14C are displayed on a display device 10 in the subject vehicle SV in such manner as in FIGS. 15A to 15C, respectively. Specifically, when the obstacle OB is detected in the detection area DA, the detection points DP1 and DP2 are provided at positions corresponding to distances to the subject vehicle SV. The positions are for instance at 45° from the longitudinal axis of the vehicle SV.
According to this display, in some instances, the detection points DP may not be provided along the outer periphery of the obstacle OB but may be provided at other positions away from the outer periphery of the obstacle OB. As a result, a driver of the vehicle SV may recognize a rearward space available for the rearward parking movement as being more limited than it actually is. Therefore this parking assisting system is not satisfactory.